It’s not about back-to-nature. It’s about enabling these different ecologies and flows and networks help each other. To conclude, Elizabeth also asked me to address the question: where next for the Challenge? How (I interpret) can the Challenge help make systems thinking as natural, for millions of people, as riding a bike? 1 Stay niche The world needs a new kind of design based on an ethical framework in which life is the ultimate source of value; that re-conceives mainstream notions of “development”; and that drives the transition from an extractive economy (minerals and hydrocarbons) to a restorative economy. That framework may be niche now, but it’s the way of the future. And besides, there’s a ton of work to be done re-imagining the kinds of value that design can create. The BFC is one of the few platforms for this essential work — and many, many people are waiting for someone to take a lead here. 2 Embrace wickedness The discontinuities we face — in terms of climate change, financial systems and resource flows — are all so-called wicked problems that do not lend themselves to a single-vision, top down, design approach. Fuller anticipated this uncertainty and counseled people to accept that life always tends to unfold in unexpected ways. Just as one cannot step into the same river twice, each and every design project — and the people, land and context — are, or should be, unique. I’m sure many people really don’t want to hear more solutions from those on high who can’t possible know what will happen; what they want is more thougthful conversation about open-ended questions. BFC is the place for these interactions. 3 Edit out the genius stuff Peter Drucker famously warned that “no institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it.” The same goes for systems thinking, and systems design. Fuller was a genius who could see what needed to be done — but much of his language is hard for most of us mere mortals to grasp: “reductionist thinking"…"reflexive default"…"design science revolution"…."preferred state” ….“whole systems approach"…."replicable” and so on. By all means use those words backstage — but not in the main hall. 4 Be a breathing space In 1970, Bucky Fuller wrote, “ I don’t know what I am. I don’t fit into a category. I seem to be a verb.” Many people involved in today’s sustainable alternatives — design’s “outliers” — feel the same. They — we — often plough lonely furrows and need to to support each other more. The BFC can help to meet that need — just as we are doing here this evening: breathing the same air. 5. Prepare to get political David Orr wisely alerted us to this at this year’s prize-giving event. All things bottom-up, spontaneous and emergent are fine — up to a point. But here we are, a generation into all of that, and our overall position continues to decline. As Charlotte du Cann wrote recently, ’“Transition is changing tempo…history is coming into our streets and into our lives and we need to know how to act.” (via John Thackara’s 2011 Buckminster Fuller Challenge keynote address.: Change Observer: Design Observer)